A little homespun
philosophy this week.
There seem to be a
number of relatively new concepts currently going the rounds and some of them
are becoming almost an industry. For
example Mindfulness is gaining adherents as is Thought Leadership and the indications
are that there is a move towards self-examination, even introspection.
However, the one that
has sparked my interest is that of Happiness which for fairly obvious reasons
is an objective worth the pursuit.
I do have some
concern about it however, that when Governments start to latch on to a
fashionable idea they can latch on with a heavy hand (if that isn’t a very
mixed metaphor) and drain all the life out if it.
How on earth can
Government affect or even try to affect the happiness of the people? Government is there to legislate and as the
majority of legislation is there to prevent us from doing something (if you
don’t believe me just check it out) then hoping to bring happiness to us is a
fallacy.
Please just get
the economy right and accept that is the best you can achieve.
Happiness is a
feeling; it is not measurable as some academics and psychologists would have us
believe. Indeed it is probably an absolute in the same way as “unique” in that we are either happy or
not.
It is not the same
as contentment, enjoyment or pleasure; all of those can contribute to our happiness
but they are not happiness in themselves.
It is an intensely
personal and transient feeling. What
makes each of us happy does not necessarily do so for anyone else. It is transient because external influences
can affect us both positively and negatively and often quickly.
Contributors to
personal happiness are many and varied and again are appropriate to different
interpretations. For example, the
acquisition of a new possession, a walk in the park, good friends and family
relationships, animals, good conversation, spirituality, meditation, the list
is endless.
It is worth
examining how each of us achieves happiness.
Is it through one of the situations above or do you have something in
your life that really makes you happy to the exclusion of everything else?
I heard a piece on
the radio recently when a Buddhist monk was interviewed having been described
as “the happiest man in the world”. Who made this decision wasn’t mentioned
except that it appeared that someone had managed to evolve a technique that
they claimed could measure happiness.
Neuroscience would
have it that finding which parts of the brain are stimulated positively and
monitoring those parts would enable a measurement of happiness to be
defined.
I am extremely
sceptical about this possibility.
Because of the transient nature of happiness it would seem very unlikely
that it would occur during a brain scan.
It’s a laudable attempt but please, leave us to be happy without the
burden of scientific analysis.
Business leaders
would always claim that they “have a
happy workforce”. Do they mean
contented (apathetic) or perhaps the people exhibit a positive attitude?
Recent statistics would
lead us to believe that productivity in UK industry is the lowest in Europe,
being defined as the value produced per hour of work.
There must be a
correlation; I would have thought that if the workforce is happy then there
should be a high level of productivity or am I being naïve?
Perhaps the answer
is to implant a culture into the business which encourages people, which gives
then the freedom to act positively, that doesn’t weight them down with unnecessary
bureaucracy and with a leadership that show concern for their wellbeing.
Those are the sort
of criteria that will lead to a happy workforce.
In my case it
would be a comfortable chair, the dog asleep on my lap, listing to great music
(me not the dog) and getting outside of a large bowl of ice cream (again, me
not the dog)
Like I said, it’s
intensely personal and very transient but it’s great while it lasts.
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